That We Face But Cannot See
by GoldenFinch01
Summary: In which Jason recollects what happens when Percy, his best friend, Hero of Olympus who is dealing with the horrific aftermath of Tartarus, encounters a boggart. Set Post HoO and Pre-Hogwarts OotP
1. Chapter 1

**That We Face But Cannot See**

"All I'm saying is, why would they go through all the effort of teaching a cow how to write English, only to settle with a cow that can't spell?"

"Sweet Rhea, dude. It's a cow. Of course it's going to have crappy spelling."

"But, Chick-fil-a is like, loaded. They can afford to hire smart cows. Or smart teachers. Hades, if Annabeth was in charge-"

Jason sighed in exasperation and looked around. The hallway of Number 12 Grimmauld Place was empty, save for Jason and Percy. The wizards whose house they were staying at had all regrouped in the kitchen to enjoy Mrs. Weasley's magnificent cooking, which is where the two demigods were headed now. Hazel was probably already in there waiting for them. Huffing in good-natured ire, Jason reeled on the Son of Poseidon.

"Percy, it's a freaking cow. In a _freaking__Chick-fil-A commercial."_

Percy regarded him briefly with his eyebrows raised before bursting out in laughter. Jason relented after a moment with a snort. It felt good to laugh. It had been a little less than a month since the Giant War had ended, and while there had been a period of grief where the pain of the loss of those who had died was fresh as any battle wound, the demigods of Camp Half-Blood and Camp Jupiter alike were slowly but surely recovering. Jason found that he was smiling and laughing more now than he ever had before the war. He liked to think that it was because the losses from the war made him realize that life was too short not have a good time. However, he suspected that hanging around the laidback Greek demigods-especially Leo, that gods dammed little shit who let everyone think he was dead only to turn up 100% alive and with a hot-ass girlfriend to boot—had really softened his stiff Roman attitude.

Sighing in content, he looked at Percy, who was still snickering. The Son of Poseidon's form was still lean due the weight he had lost during his time in Tartarus. His skin had regained its usual dark sun tan, which contrasted sharply with the pink and white scars that peaked out from under his navy blue hoodie. Physically, he was on the highway to recovery. Mentally… that was taking a bit longer, however much he tried to hide it.

For the sake of Percy's pride, Jason pretended not to be awoken by Percy when he left the demigods' bedroom at ungodly hours of the night, still shaking from his quotidian nightmares. He figured that when Water Boy was ready to talk about it, he would. Besides, Jason was no Annabeth, so he doubted there was much he could do to help Percy anyway. This trip was the first time he and the Daughter of Athena wouldn't be together for longer than a few days. It wasn't favorable and pretty much everyone-Chiron, the Camp Councilors, the rest of the Seven, and Reyna-had argued against it, but Hecate had personally selected Jason, Percy, and Hazel to carry out this quest and stubbornly refused to change her mind.

When she was faced with protests and backlash over her decision, the Goddess of Magic forcefully teleported the three of them right on the spot, sending them to England without so much as a suitcase. After debriefing them of their mission (find and kill the Greek monsters that, for whatever reason, were running around London and joining some guy named Voldemort's army) she had disappeared, effectively abandoning them in a foreign country to find a society so secret that not even the natives knew about it.

Yeah, that had been about as much fun as it sounded.

In the end, after they discovered strange sticks on their persons that they figured were planted there by Hecate, they had wandered around the city for a couple days, (guiltily) using Hazel's mist-euros to get hotel rooms and food until they were found by a large, peg-legged man with a strange prosthetic eye. Deciding that he was too conspicuous to be a monster but keeping their guard up nonetheless, they talked with him in an alleyway, where he revealed that his eye was magical and he could tell that the three of them were, very clearly, not human. Telling him the truth about themselves and their quest, they agreed to visit his 'headquarters' (a house that didn't appear unless you had a specific, magical passcode. Really Hecate? How in the Name of Zeus were they supposed to find that on their own?) and meet the organization that was fighting against the 'Voldemort' guy. They had since decided to team up, so the three demigods would be staying at Number 12 Grimmauld Place until they could complete their quest and have Hecate take them home. In the meantime, the wizards of the organization-The Order of the Phoenix, they called it, -were teaching the demigods a little bit of magic.

As far as quests go, Jason decided this one wasn't too bad. Granted, he would much rather be back in the States, carrying out his duty as Pontifex Maximus and spending the summer with Piper and his friends. He was sure Hazel had plans to spend time with Frank and help him with his Praetor duties, and sweet Rhea, did Percy need time to recover with Annabeth.

…Oh, who was he kidding. This sucked.

It really got him that despite being the subjects of a Great Prophecy, fighting in another war that the gods pretty much did the bare minimum to aid in, and sacrificing almost everything to come out victorious, they were here being treated like tools yet again. To make matters worse, Hecate, knowing how unwilling the demigods were to complete this quest, cut off all connection between the camps and the magical world, eliminating the possibility of shadow traveling or riding centaurs or pegasi home. Even Iris Messages were cut off. The camps had absolutely no idea where they were.

By the time Percy had finally finished guffawing at their dumb conversation, the boys were halfway to the kitchen.

"Hey, do you hear that?"

They both stopped and straightened at the odd sound, looking at each other with wide eyes as they drew the same conclusion.

Someone was in hysterics.

The old hardwood stairs creaked as the Percy charged forward with Jason hot on his heels. They reached the first landing and barged through the closest door (the drawing-room, was it?) only for Percy to stop so abruptly, Jason almost smacked his nose on the back of Percy's head.

"Geez Perce, what the…?"

The words caught in his throat as he absorbed the scene before him: Mrs. Weasley, on her knees against the wall, sobbing and rocking back and forth as she covered her mouth with a shaking hand. In her other hand was her wand, which was pointed at the sprawled body of a dead Harry Potter.

All the air left Jason in a fell gasp. He had just seen Harry ten minutes ago, roaming with Ron and Hermione. How could he be…?

Percy seemed to have the same thoughts, as he uttered a faint "Oh, Gods" under his breath. Neither of them moved as Mrs. Weasley waved her wand.

"Riddi-Riddikulus!"

Nothing happened, save for the wave of relief that swept over the demigods, as they understood that this was not actually Harry Potter in front of them, and Harry Potter was not actually dead. A shared look between the two confirmed each other's thoughts. This was a Boggart: A magical creature that shifted its appearance to take on the form of its enemy's worst fears.

Wizard monsters, man.

Percy's breath rasped hot over Jason's ear.

"Get Mrs. Weasley out of here. I'll get the booger."

"Boggart."

"Whatever, man. Let's boogie!"

Laughing despite himself, Jason made his way over to the Weasley matriarch (who had since fainted), keeping a watchful eye on Percy as he approached the corpse in the middle of the room.

As he stepped closer, the body shifted. The boggart seemed to be sizing him up, evaluating what form would be most effective. A heartbeat later, it had transformed into another dead body-this time in the form of a familiar blonde haired girl.

The muscles in Percy's jaw clenched as he stared into its unseeing gray eyes, before he raised his wand and muttered, "Riddikulus."

The body lurched, but instead of disappearing, it began to clamber to its feet. Smoke poured off its form and pooled around the floor.

"Pe-rcy…"

Jason's breath hitched. _Oh, Gods,_ he thought. _Its voice is exactly the same._

"Percy… why? Why would you do this? I asked you to stop."

Percy's face had gone very pale, as had his knuckles as he gripped his want tighter. The boggart's face was also blanched, but in a more horrifying, ghastly way. Its eyes were sunken in and dull. Its cheeks were gaunt and hollow. It looked like an animated skeletal corpse, with battered corn silk hair that hung raggedly from its scalp.

"I begged you-begged you to just let Akhys go, to just let her run off, but you didn't. You killed her. You drowned her in her own poison, you MONSTER."

Jason had no idea what the boggart was talking about, but Percy clearly did. His eyes were wide with shock, lips parted in horror. He raised his wand again as the figure staggered towards him with a heavy limp. Jason noticed through his stupor that the monster's left anklebone was jutting out of the skin like a white knife.

"But that wasn't enough for you. You just had to keep going, you power hungry bastard. You killed me, Godsdammit! YOU KILLED-"

"_Riddikulus_!"

Percy spluttered the spell out, finally. But instead of disappearing, the monster gave a high-pitched keen and morphed again.

Jason fumbled for his wand, his hands flying from pocket to pocket. _Schist, I left it in our room! _

His efforts died as the boggart slowly solidified into a monstrously huge being, whose grotesque purple flesh bulged with boulder-sized muscles.

Jason's jaw dropped.

His eyes darted about the figure, struggling to take in the horrific details. It wore scorched black chain link armor around its waist. With a start, Jason realized that the armor was not made of metal, but of bones. Thousands of twisted bones, from humans and monsters alike. Eyes traveling up, Jason just had time to take in a glossy obsidian breastplate-that seemed to move, for some reason- and a helm made of saw tooth rock that dripped glowing magma before Percy's voice snatched his attention once more. "_Riddi_…"

The word died out into nothing. The being, now fully formed, swung its massive shoulders to face Jason's friend fully. Jason could see Percy's chest heaving from across the room, could hear the frantic draws of breath. Percy was hyperventilating.

Dust crumbled from the ceiling and the chandelier crashed to the floor as the manifestation hissed in what must have been laughter.

_"You will never escape me, little demigod. I own you, flesh and spirit."_

The tip of the giant's helm barely missed scraping against the ceiling as it reached a massive hand towards the Son of Poseidon, making to grab him. Its onyx talons, which were easily as long as Jason was tall, gleamed in the moonlight.

_"I am ETERNAL!"_

"_Riddikulus! RIDDIKULUS!"_

Percy all but screamed the spell. His voice was strangled, like he was choking. It was a wonder that the spell even registered, and the being collapsed into a cloud of dust.

Jason was speechless. He stared at the flakes that hung stagnant in the air, not quite understanding what he had just seen. The only sound in the room was the rasp of Percy's breath as he struggled to keep himself together. He looked like he might break down at any second.

Neither of them was expecting the sudden movement that erupted from the cloud. It was a man, about as tall as Jason and some four times as wide. The impossible rolls of fat that jutted out from his belly lurched about with every step he took. His greasy scalp flashed briefly in the moonlight as he passed by the window. The thing that caught Jason's attention the most, however, was not the disgusting bean dip dribbling from his chin, or the repulsive odor that seemed to have appeared with the man. Instead, Jason's eyes fixated on the beer bottle the man held in his meaty fist like a club.

_"BRAIN BOY!"_

The man burst forwards at speeds Jason would've thought impossible for someone of his girth. Percy lurched backward, colliding with a table and toppling over. He tried to put as much distance between himself and the advancing man, scrambling backward in an improvised kind of crab walk until his back thudded against the wall. His face wore the same kind of horror as when he had dealt with the purple behemoth. The worst part, however, was the violent flinch he gave when the man smashed the beer bottle on the table. The shards of glass tingled as they hit the floor.

_"I'm gonna make ya wish ya was never born, ya worthless little punk-!"_

Jason gave a shout of horror as he watched the man lunge at Percy, the broken bottle brandished high above his head.

"RIDDIKULUS!"

_Crack!_

The man was no more. Instead, a small, silvery orb floated where the man's head had been. Turning, Jason saw the Order member Remus Lupin standing in the doorway, flanked by Sirius Black and Alastor Moody. Lupin's wand was pointed at the orb. With a flick of his wrist, it vanished in a puff of smoke.

The boggart was gone.

"Oh-oh-oh!" Mrs. Weasley gulped, coming to at last. Jason shakily clambered to his feet as Remus jogged across the room, dropping to his knees beside her.

Percy was still huddled against the wall, not responding to any of Sirius's words, even though the man was crouching right next to him. His eyes were still fixated on the spot the boggart had occupied. His breath was still coming in short gasps. Jason began to make his way over, watching as Sirius reached a hand out to place on Percy's shoulder.

The moment the hand made contact, Percy started out of his trance. His head whipped around to face Sirius's apprehensive gaze, and he scrambled away from the older man.

"It's alright, son," Sirius tried, but Percy acted as if he couldn't hear him. The demigod dragged himself to his feet, leaning against the wall momentarily, before shaking his head and hurrying out of the room.

**AN- this will probably be a series of one-shots about this quest**


	2. Chapter 2

**Chapter 2**

Hazel was getting impatient.

She was standing in the kitchen watching the wizards heap portions of Mrs. Weasley's supernal masterpiece of a dinner onto their plates. Dishes were set up buffet-style along the center island, so the many residents of the house could come and eat at whatever time they pleased.

She knew she could just walk up and serve herself whenever she wanted. She didn't have to torture herself like this. However, it had become a custom for the three demigods to eat together, and she didn't want to be rude. Proper mannerisms had been one of the few good things she'd been taught by her mother. With that in mind, Hazel resigned herself to her suffering, fingers drumming in patterns against her legs as she watched the door.

She expected to see two hungry boys when she heard footsteps in the hallway. She did _not _expect Remus, supporting an unsteady Mrs. Weasley, to hobble through the door, followed by Sirius and Moody, both of whom sported grave expressions. The teenagers eating dinner froze, exclamations of alarm ringing through the air. Remus ignored them all, eyes scanning the room until they fell on Hazel.

"I'd go check on your friend with the dark hair, if I were you. He and Molly here had a bit of a nasty run-in with a Boggart."

Hazel blinked. _Boggart, boggart, boggart. What's a-? OH, shit!_

She squeaked out a 'thank you' to the man before hurrying out the door. She raced around the corner only to slam into Jason, who squawked in surprise.

"Oh, Hazel! Thank the Gods, I was just coming to get you. Percy-"

"Yeah, I heard from Mr. Lupin. Where is he? Is he ok?"

Jason's eyes dropped to the floor as he raked his fingers through his hair. "I don't know, and no, he's completely freaked out. I shouldn't have let him handle it, and I didn't have my wand and-"

Hazel reached up and grabbed Jason's shoulders, shaking him lightly. "Jason. It's not you fault, so stop it. We just need to find him. Any ideas?"

He took a deep breath. "Yeah, okay. Right. Um, he always went to where he could see the stars on the _Argo II. _Maybe-?"

Hazel was already moving. She found herself panting for breath by the time she made it to their bedroom. The room was empty, with the only movement coming from the drapes as they fluttered in the wind from the open window.

* * *

They found him sitting on the roof, elbows propped up on his knees and neck craned to the sky. Jason flew them up and landed gently besides him.

"Hey guys," Percy croaked, cracking a smile that didn't reach his eyes.

Hazel plopped down on Percy's left, crisscross applesauce. Jason settled on Percy's right with a grunted, "Hey man."

They sat for a while, listening to the summer crickets. Finally, Percy broke the silence. "You know, it's pretty buggy out. You don't have to be up here."

Hazel snorted. "Yes we do. We'd be bad friends if we weren't checking up on you."

The corner of Percy's mouth quirked up, but he kept his gaze fixed on the sky.

Jason cleared his throat. "All jokes aside, are you okay?"

Pause.

"…Peachy. Just peachy."

"Dude."

"What do you want me to say, Grace?"

"I don't know! Maybe you can explain what's wrong? So we can help you?" His retort rang sharp. Hazel shot Jason a look, and he winced. "Sorry. I just don't like feeling useless."

Another pause.

"I may not be a doctor," Hazel started out slowly. "But Nico says he feels a weight off his chest every time he talks about it with Will. I know you and Annabeth were doing sessions with Will too, but since he's not here, well, Jason and I are always here to help."

Percy groaned. His hands ran over his face, through his hair, and finally dropped in his lap, fingers twitching. "I don't even know where to start."

Jason blinked. "Start when it started getting bad. You were fine until it shifted into that…smoky, Annabeth ghost."

"That _was _Annabeth. While we were in pit. The doors were at the heart, swamped by monsters. We couldn't have just walked through them, you know? So we-"

Percy paused, closing his eyes. He swallowed hard before continuing, "We had to find Akhys, 'cause she could disguise us with Death Mist. "

Jason winced. "Akhys and Death Mist. Seems pleasant."

Percy let loose a bark of laughter, but there was no humor behind it. "Yeah. About as nice as it sounds."

"I'm guessing Death Mist isn't anything like normal Mist?" Hazel, in all of her experiences with working with Hecate, had never heard of such a thing.

"Nah. Mist is just for show, distorting appearances. Death Mist distorts the material of everything it touches. When she put it on us, it turned us into… smoke? Ghosts? I'm not sure what we were. All I know is that we couldn't touch anything, but she and, well, everything else could hit us. "

Hazel was at a loss for words. To be at the mercy of anything you came into contact with… In a place like _Tartarus?_

Yikes.

Finally Jason broke the silence. "So how did you guys escape her?"

Upon seeing Percy's distraught look he quickly added, "You don't have to tell us if you don't want to! I get it. I just figured-"

"No, it's not that. It's just-" Hazel had to lean in to hear what Percy said next. "I did something real bad."

Hazel sighed. "You want bad? Percy, I freaking resurrected Alcyoneus and killed my own mother. The kind of situations demigods get put in leave us with tough choices to make. Sometimes we don't even get a choice. I'm sure-"

"Choices?" Percy spat out the word with such sudden bitterness it caught Hazel off guard. "You want to talk about choices? My choice was to make the Goddess of Misery as miserable as I could. I trapped her and swamped her in her own poison. When she started crying, I shoved her tears down her throat. I wasn't saving anyone. I did it because I wanted to. If Annabeth hadn't…Annabeth was terrified. Of _me_. She might still be, and for good reason. What kind of person _does _that?"

He rose to his feet, eyes bright with anger and…_tears. _He whirled on Jason, who was staring up at him in shock.

"You should have let Polybotes kill me with his poison. It only would've been fitting."

And with that, he tried to walk away. Keyword 'tried.' Hazel had other plans. Something inside her had shattered at that statement. She was angry; Angry with the Gods for making the person she'd come to see as an older brother go through so, so much pain. She was angry with herself for not preventing this, like she could have if she'd just untangled her _stupid _spatha from that _stupid _ladder faster on that fateful day. And finally, she was angry with Percy. She was furious, actually. She slammed the window closed with a flick of her wrist, the resounding _clang _stopping Percy in his tracks.

_"_How _dare _you say that, Percy Jackson."

He didn't turn around to face her.

"You, of all people. You've saved the world from going to hell at least what, three times? And you seriously think that because you made one decision, it makes you any less of a hero? Any less worthy _to live? _"

She marched across the rooftop, her throat getting tighter and tighter with every step. Ahead of her, Percy's shoulders started to shake.

"You have so much to live for, Percy Jackson. You have us, and the rest of the seven, who love you. You have your parents, Sally and Paul, who love you. You have a little sister on the way, who will love you. You have Annabeth who loves you with all her heart."

The tears were pouring freely down her face now. She reached up to grab Percy's shoulders, gently but firmly turning him around to face her.

"You could have lost every war you've ever fought in, or failed every quest you've ever been on, and that still wouldn't change the fact that you are the greatest, kindest, most respectable person on the planet. So when you say shit like that, it _breaks _my _damn heart _because you are amazing and so much more than your mistakes."

Percy had tears silently streaking down his face. When Hazel yanked him down to hug her, he obliged, sinking to his knees as she wrapped her arms around him and held him tight. He buried his face in the crook of her neck and cried, the sounds echoing off the rooftop.

"I'm sorry," He gasped over and over again. "I'm sorry."

"Shhh, Seaweed Brain. Everything will be okay."

They sat there for a few moments until the quiet was abruptly broken by a loud "Alright, make space. Sparky's coming in!"

Hazel gave a watery laugh as they were swept into the arms of the Son of Jupiter. The three of them stayed up on the rooftop for hours, laying in a heap and pointing out constellations to each other. They climbed back through the window only when dawn rose and replaced the stars with strokes of peach and rose, none of them having slept a wink but feeling refreshed nonetheless.


	3. Chapter 3

Hey guys!

So I've been going over this two-shot, and I have some problems with it. It has a huge backstory crammed into a couple paragraphs, which doesn't do the proper world building I need to make any future events work without a shit ton of explaining. It's also just pretty rushed in general, and I don't think that chapter 2 should follow chapter 1 and resolve all the issues as quickly as it did. It should be spread out over a longer period of time, which means I need to put more content/chapters between the boggart scene and the "therapy" scene.

So my solution is to write a complete, multi-chapter fic with the full story of the demigods' quest.

I started planning it out earlier this afternoon, and five hours later I have 11 pages worth of notes and almost an entire storyline with an actual villain (that I pulled out of my ass but she's kind of sick and she lines up with the Myths so lmk if she seems legit) and proper world building and I'm actually really excited to write it lol

I was originally going to leave this as a two-shot, but you guys left the _sweetest_ and most encouraging reviews. Seriously. I've been reading fanfics for _years_ and I always thought that authors were exaggerating when they talked about how good the reviews made them feel. (Well well well… how the turntables...) Seriously, each review absolutely made my day, and dammit I looked like a grinning fool because of y'all. I hope this upcoming fic, which would not have happened if not for you guys, conveys how grateful I am. It's also an apology bc I said I would update this one and then I didn't and it's been almost a year and lmao whoops.

The first chapter of the new story should be posted as a new fic sometime this week. I'm not sure what the title should be yet, so if you guys have any suggestions based off this one, let me know! I'll also put a notice on this fic when I upload the other one. I just wanted to get this out so you guys wouldn't still be in the dark, because I know how much it sucks to feel like an author's given up on a fic (once again, sorry lol). I have AP exams this week (which I did not study for whatsoever, senioritis and coronatime depression got me real bad) but I should be able to get the first chapter out anyway.

Ok. It is midnight and I have my AP Govt exam tomorrow and I have spent the past 5.5 hours writing fanfiction. This'll be fun :)

Thank you all again!  
-Finch


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